Legion
What: Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) gives Marvel’s X-Men universe a wild spin, starring Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Rachel Keller, Jean Smart and Bill Irwin.
When: Premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: FX.
What: Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) gives Marvel’s X-Men universe a wild spin, starring Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Rachel Keller, Jean Smart and Bill Irwin.
When: Premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: FX.
If trying to come up with a new take on a superhero story in an already crowded field of superhero stories sounds a bit crazy, it sounds even crazier for Noah Hawley.
The writer/producer/director has an insane number of projects in the works. His upcoming third season of “Fargo” is due sometime in April, and he’s developing a series for FX based on Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” adapting his own well-received novel “Before the Fall” into a screenplay. He’s also readying for his feature film directorial debut of a sci-fi script by Joe Greenberg called “Man Alive.”
Up first, though, is “Legion,” premiering Wednesday.
The trippy — there seems no better word — FX series is set in an obscure part of the Marvel Comics “X-Men” universe. It tells the story of David Haller, a schizophrenic plagued with delusions that may just be manifestations of his mutant powers.
The show begins with a surreal and exhilarating four-minute montage set to The Who’s “Happy Jack.” Accompanied by Keith Moon’s maniacal drumming, it careens through David’s life, from infancy to him being a twentysomething, where he resides under strict supervision in a mental hospital.
Hawley, a late fortysomething himself, saw the montage as a way to quickly and visually underline David’s tragic situation. If “Legion” seems out of place in the “X-Men” saga, that’s all right with Hawley.
“My goal was to write about a man whose abilities are just a part of what is. David’s issues are as much on a human scale as they are on comic-book scale,” he says, adding he wanted a show as compelling even if the mutant elements were stripped out.
“The thing I’ve always loved about genre — comic books, science fiction and fantasy — is that there is a certain level of playfulness in them that allows pure imagination and creativity.”
In the comic books, David Haller is minor figure introduced in 1984, supposedly the son of “X-Men” founder Charles Xavier, but no one on “Legion” is making the connection, although David has similar mental powers.
Hawley saw “Legion” as an origin story, and since it’s all in David’s drugged-up head, audiences may have a difficult time getting their bearings at first.
“This idea of a subjective reality — the sort of down the rabbit hole story — played nicely into David’s issues since he spent the last 15 years or so not knowing what was real,” explains Hawley.
Noting “X-Men” movies have started to become period movies, Hawley also wanted to play with time.
“I thought that for somebody who is been out circulation for so long and been medicated for so long his perception of the world might not feel like anything we recognize. Some of it may feel very retro because those are memories and some of it may feel very futuristic because technology is changing.”
That gave Hawley, who directed the first episode, the freedom to create something he calls more of a fable and allow him to “whimsically” play around with production and design.
“It wasn’t scripted to be this ‘Clockwork Orange’-‘Quadrophenia’ world. That was just part of the development process after I took it on as a project.”
The first episode also includes lengthy versions on the soundtrack of the Rolling Stones’ psychedelic “She’s a Rainbow” and Thomas Dolby’s frenetic “Hyperactive!”
The mental hospital David is being held at is called Clockworks, and one of the new inmates is Sydney “Syd” Barrett, which happens to be the name of Pink Floyd’s founder who had his own battles with drugs and mental illness. (“Dark Side of the Moon” was part of the playlist he provided the cast to get into the right headspace for the show.)
David is played by Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley on “Downton Abbey”). If you have only seen the actor in the period piece playing a proper English gentleman, you may have a hard time recognizing him here.
“He’s hands-down a romantic leading man,” says Hawley, adding that the actor wasn’t self-conscious about pretending to move things around with his mind.
“For a lot of us, this show has pushed us in directions that none of us have ever really been in before,” says Stevens. “I think to an actor that is overwhelmingly appealing.”
Casting Stevens was an easy choice, says Hawley.
“People with mental-health issues are often inward-facing characters and can be depressive and what Dan offers is a positive struggle. He’s funny. With him, there’s always the sense that if he can just figure it out he can get back on track, and that makes the struggle heroic.”
Fans may have difficulty recognizing Stevens in his next film, Disney’s live version of “Beauty and the Beast,” coming out March 17. The British actor sings and dances in the role of the Beast/prince.
In “Legion,” Stevens’ Dan is a wild-eyed American — remember, he’s never sure what’s real — with hair of varying lengths and cuts, depending on the time he’s in. Yet the character always seems to be calculating, then recalculating what’s going on.
Stevens says he didn’t know much about Legion in the comic books, but had a college buddy who was a complete “fanboy” and he could turn to him for help.
But he cautions: “While there are elements, visual elements that you might recognize from the comics, we’re not directly adapting anything from the comic-book story.”
Except for David, Hawley created all new characters for “Legion.” Rachel Keller (“Fargo”) plays the blonde gloved Syd, who David falls for immediately but can’t touch.
Aubrey Plaza is Lenny, a disturbed patient at the hospital and the closest thing to a confidante for David. Jean Smart, another “Fargo” alum, is a therapist who tries to convince David he isn’t crazy.
It’s the same way Hawley approached both seasons of “Fargo.” With that FX show he started with the world the Coen brothers created in the Oscar-winning movie and populated it with his own characters.
With “Legion” he wanted something unexpected.
“I think it is always important to an audience to feel like they don’t know where it’s going and can’t predict where it’s going,” he said.
The writer gives credit to FX and its president John Landgraf for letting him make the show he wanted.
“I think they are hardwired to try and tell a story a different way, and but I think the love story is very grounded, very real,” says Hawley. “To say of a character that he doesn’t know what’s real or is not real is hard for an audience, but if you give them something to root for, they’ll make that trade.”
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